Currently, governments and industries are imposing functional safety standards on a variety of entities, for example, the automotive industry. Usually, these functional safety standards are realized by way of safety software that utilizes standard functional architecture patterns. Unfortunately, these functional safety standards, software, and architecture patterns are very rigid and do not give OEMs or integrators enough flexibility to maintain or upgrade the functionality of the safety-related systems, without incurring considerable added costs to an overall system.
Specifically, functional safety standards require time consuming design and certified validation, where no integration with associated non-safety related applications exists. Hence, expensive hardware and software designs are required because the safety software and standard functional architecture patterns are dedicated. When upgrades are required to a non-safety related application, both the safety application and the associated non-safety related application must be recertified, thereby adding costs and loss of functional system time to an entity.
What is sought is a way to separate the safety related application from the associated non-safety related application, so that when the associated non-safety related application requires maintenance and upgrading, the safety related application does not have to be recertified. Thereby, saving an entity much time and labor costs.